Indices settle with marginal gains, Sensex rises 89 points on RBI rate hike

The topline equity indices on BSE and National Stock Exchange (NSE) trimmed their intraday gains and ended marginally higher on Friday after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) hiked its repo rate by 50 basis points (bps).

The S&P BSE Sensex rose 89.13 points (0.15 per cent) to end at 58,387.93, while the Nifty 50 settled at 17,397.50, up 15.50 points (0.09 per cent). Both the indices had opened around 0.2 per cent higher earlier in the day and extended their gains after RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das announced the central bank’s decisions with the Sensex hitting a high of 58,649.19 and the broader Nifty touching 17,474.40. However, they trimmed their gains in the afternoon deals and settled with marginal gains.

On the Sensex pack, UltraTech Cement, ICICI bank, Bharti Airtel, Power Grid Corporation of India, Infosys and Wipro were the top gainers on Friday. In contrast, Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M), Maruti Suzuki India, Reliance Industries (RIL), IndusInd Bank, Bajaj Finserv and State Bank of India (SBI) were the top laggards.

Among sectoral indices, the Nifty IT index rose 0.64 per cent and Nifty bank inched up 0.44 per cent. On the other hand, Nifty Auto index fell 1.09 per cent, Nifty Consumer Durables declined 1.09 per cent.

In the broader market, S&P BSE MidCap index rose 20.83 points (0.09 per cent) to end at 24,479.05 while the S&P BSE SmallCap settled at 27,605.08, up 63.56 points (0.23 per cent).

“Despite the rate hike being on the higher side of the expectations, the market welcomed the RBI’s move of 50 basis hike with rising bond yields. Even though metals prices are softening, RBI decided to keep FY23 inflation targets unchanged at 6.7 per cent, which is above the tolerance level. However, given that Q3 and Q4 inflation is anticipated to be between 4.0 per cent and 4.1 per cent, the market is hopeful for the future,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.